US military admits it carried out secret race-based experiments to test impact of mustard gas on US

[jakeXT]

The US Department of Defence has for the first time admitted that it carried out race-based tests on American troops as part of its research about mustard gas.
Up to 60,000 men were enlisted for a programme, declassified in 1993, to test mustard gas and other chemicals agents on US troops.
But National Public Radio reported that the Pentagon has for the first time admitted that it grouped its test subjects by race as it believed African American and Puerto Rican US troops might respond to the poisonous gas different to white soldiers.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-military-admits-it-carried-out-secret-racebased-experiments-to-test-impact-of-mustard-gas-on-us-soldiers-10336931.html

[newfie11]

1. Not surprised

Our troops have been used as Guinea pigs before. Nuclear testing ( remember the picture of troops standing outside watching a mushroom cloud in good ole USA).
Then of course there's the injections give on vaccines that were not yet approved and I'm sure much more.

[Ready4Change]

2. I'm frustrated with the reporting on this.

From the articles on this I can find thus far, this testing is said to have been done on soldiers 'grouped by race.' It mentions testing on African American as well as Japanese American soldiers. Their stated purpose was to see if the mustard gas had different results on different races.

But the articles down play, or don't even mention, that these tests were also conducted on White American soldiers. And that makes sense. They were trying to see if there were differences in the reactions to the gas between races. It's a morally deplorable, but technically valid, question.

I can't find a good summation of numbers. But I do find mention of these tests being conducted on 6,400 to 6,700 African American soldiers, and mention that over 60,000 soldiers were subjected to the testing. That suggests that the racial ratio was close to the ratio of the American population of the time. (ie: ~ 10% of the US population was African American during WW2)

What I'm getting at is this: If you want to be outraged, get outraged over the fact that mustard gas was tested on ANYONE. This wasn't an attack solely against African Americans.

Frankly, if any persons of race have reason to object here it's Japanese Americans. They were tested against here as well, as Japan was the proposed target for the use of mustard gas, and they are hardly being mentioned at all!

[bobthedrummer]

3. There are real conspiracies involved in the history of US biological/chemical "research"

many linked to the University of Wisconsin's involvement through people like Ira Baldwin, Edwin Fred, Frank Olson and others.

Ira Baldwin converted Fort Detrick into the first biological warfare center of the US at the request of George Merck.

Check it out for yourself. Another conspiracy that isn't theory hidden in "national security"-just like clandestine race-based "testing".

K&R